Terry Richard/The OregonianA spot in a canoe leads to places to explore on the Willamette River.

The Willamette River Water Trail Partnership in Oregon was one of 21 finalists named April 21 by the U.S. Department of the Interior as its 2007 Cooperative Conservation Award recipients. (Look on my blog here for info and photos about the water trail.)

The national award recognizes cooperative conservation achievements that involve a diversity of collaborators, which may include federal, state, local and tribal governments; private for-profit and nonprofit institutions, other non-governmental groups and individuals. The Bureau of Land Management and the National Parks Service received the award from Secretary of the Interior Dirk Kempthorne on behalf of the partnership at a Department of Interior ceremony in Washington, D.C.

Completed last year as part of Gov. Ted Kulongoski's Willamette River Trail Legacy, the development of the Willamette River Water Trail was spearheaded by the Oregon Parks and Recreation Department, Willamette Riverkeeper organization, NPS and BLM. The project also
included 42 county agencies, city governments, regional park districts, non-profit conservation organizations and private business leaders.

The Willamette River Water Trail incorporates the Coast and Middle forks above Eugene upstream and joins the Columbia River downstream north of Portland.